An anonymous reader writes: In September, 2012 was published a circular, signed by the French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, which presents "Orientations and Recommendations relative to the Use of Free Software in French Administration". This document is the result of an interdepartmental work carried out by the DISIC ("Direction interministérielle des systèmes d'information et de communication", Interdepartmental Direction Directorate of information systems and communication).

are also going into that direction: requiring their administrations to use Free Software.

How much money can that save from national budgets?

In fact, how much money is channeled to some companies from whole countries, and how much security is lost in some black boxes managed from unaccountable companies?

I hear there is also some troubles brewing, because the French military has entered into an agreement with microsoft to use any of their software and *then* to pay them after some kind of audit. This kind of